2012 Look Back: This article was originally published on February 1, 2012. It was the 8th most viewed Bike Delaware article of 2012.

2011 winner Janet Sadik-Khan

In 2007, the year after the visionary urban activist Jane Jacobs died, the Rockefeller Foundation launched the Jane Jacobs annual award to honor her work. This medal reaffirms the Foundation’s commitment to New York City by recognizing those whose creative uses of the urban environment build a more diverse, dynamic and equitable city.

Jane Jacobs’ ties to the Rockefeller Foundation stretch back a half-century (to 1958) when this relatively unknown scholar received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to expand upon her ideas about how a city should look and feel and work.